Sensitivity of cross sections for elastic nucleus-nucleus scattering to halo nucleus density distributions

In order to clear up the sensitivity of the nucleus-nucleus scattering to the nuclear matter distributions in exotic halo nuclei, we have calculated differential cross sections for elastic scattering of the ⁶He and ¹¹Li nuclei on several nuclear targets at the energy of 0.8 GeV/nucleon with different assumed nuclear density distributions in ⁶He and ¹¹Li.     

Total cross sections for 4,6He + 28Si reactions measured at 10–28 MeV/A

New results on the energy dependence of the total cross section (σ _R) for ⁶He scattering on ²⁸Si in the incident energy range 10–28 MeV/A are obtained. The α-particle-production cross sections for the ²⁸Si(⁶He, ⁴He)X channel are measured as well. The secondary beam of ⁶He with an intensity of up to 5×10⁴ particle/s was generated by bombarding a thick beryllium target with ～32-MeV/A ⁷Li ions. In the energy region below 17 MeV/A, σ _R increases sharply. The experimental dependences of the total cross sections are compared with the results of σ _R calculations using the double-folding potential within the optical model. The energy dependence of σ _R for ⁶He differs from that for the neighboring nuclei, which can be associated with the structural features of the former nucleus. The energy spectra of α particles produced in the ⁶He interactions with silicon indicate two mechanisms of their production: transfer reaction and ⁶He breakup in the field of the ²⁸Si nucleus.     

Momentum distributions of <Superscript>4</Superscript>He nuclei from the <Superscript>6</Superscript>He and <Superscript>6</Superscript>Li breakup

Experimental data on the momentum distributions of ⁴He nuclei originating from ⁶He and ⁶Li breakup on various targets are presented over a wide beam energy range. The experiment with ⁶He was performed at the DRIBs accelerator complex for radioactive beams at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, Dubna). The intensity of the ⁶He beam used was 5 × 10⁶ particles per second and its energy was 10 MeV per nucleon. The momentum distributions of breakup products were measured by means of the MSP-144 magnetic spectrometer. The distribution width was shown to be virtually independent of the target mass. A small value of this width, σ ～ 28 MeV/c, confirms the presence of a halo in ⁶He. The measurements performed with ⁶Li beams of energy 18 and 46 MeV per nucleon at the U-400M accelerator yielded a width value of σ ～ 50 MeV/c for the momentum distributions of ⁴He nuclei, which is intermediate between that for ⁶He and those for stable nuclei. A compilation of the widths of the momentum distributions of fragments originating from the breakup of various nuclei is presented versus the binding energy of one or two neutrons in these nuclei, the target mass and the projectile energy.     

Neutron-induced charged-particle reactions in 6Li and 9Be

Angular distributions of tritons from the ⁶Li(n, t)⁴He reaction were measured at E_n = 7.25, 6.77, 6.57, 5.24 and 4.71 MeV. Angular distributions of douterons from respectively, the ⁶Li(n, d)⁵He two-body breakup reaction were measured at E_n = 6.77 and 6.57 MeV, and of protons from the ⁶Li(n, p)⁶He reaction at E_n = 6.77, 5.24 and 4.71 MeV. All these reactions in ⁶Li were analyzed as direct interaction in the formalism of the distorted wave Born approximation. The optical model for the nuclear interaction was found to apply reasonably well to nuclei as light as ⁴He, ⁵He, ⁶He and ⁶Li. In addition, ⁶Li as an alpha-deuteron cluster gives the best bound-state wave function to describe the experimental angular distribution of tritons. The excitation functions at forward angles of the ⁶Li(n, t)⁴He, ⁶Li(n, d)⁵He and ⁶Li(n, p)⁶He reactions were measured for incident neutron energies between 4.4 and 7.3 MeV. It is found that the ⁶Li(n, d)⁵He two-body breakup reaction has a threshold at about E_n = 5.3 MeV. Angular distributions at E_n = 18.3 MeV for tritons and protons from the ⁹Be(n, t)⁷Li and ⁹Be(n, p)⁹Li, respectively, were also measured.     

Nuclear-matter distributions of halo nuclei from elastic proton scattering in inverse kinematics

Proton-nucleus elastic scattering at intermediate energies, a well-established method for probing nuclear-matter density distributions of stable nuclei, was applied for the first time to exotic nuclei. This method is demonstrated to be an effective means for obtaining accurate and detailed information on the size and radial shape of halo nuclei. Absolute differential cross-sections for small-angle scattering were measured at energies near 700 MeV/u for the neutron-rich helium isotopes ⁶He and ⁸He, and more recently for the lithium isotopes ⁶Li, ⁸Li, ⁹Li and ¹¹Li, using He and Li beams provided by the fragment separator FRS at GSI Darmstadt. Experiments were performed in inverse kinematics using the hydrogen-filled ionization chamber IKAR which served simultaneously as target and recoil-proton detector. For deducing nuclear-matter distributions, differential cross-sections calculated with the aid of the Glauber multiple-scattering theory, using various parametrizations for the nucleon density distributions as input, were fitted to the experimental cross-sections. The results on nuclear-matter radii and matter distributions are presented, and the significance of the data for a halo structure is discussed. Nuclear-matter distributions obtained for ⁶He and ⁸He conform with the concept that both nuclei compose of α-particle like cores and significant neutron halos. The matter distribution in ¹¹Li exhibits, as expected from previous reaction cross-section studies with nuclear targets, the by far most extended halo component of all nuclei being investigated. In addition the present data allow a quantitative comparison of the structure of the He and Li isobares of either the mass number A = 6 or A = 8. The measured differential cross-sections have also been used for probing density distributions as predicted from various microscopic calculations. A few examples are presented. Received: 21 March 2002 / Accepted: 16 May 2002 / Published online: 31 October 2002 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: p.egelhof@gsi.de     

π-π andK-¯K channel coupling and scalar mesons

Total nuclear reaction cross-sections are determined by means of a 4π-γ method. The results cover a wide span of targets for various stable beams. The validity of the method is shown in a combined systematics including also the results of transmission-type experiments. The data are very well described by the formula developed by Kox et al. The same method is applied to secondary fragment beams produced from a 44 MeV/u²²Ne beam on a 332mg/cm^{2 181}Ta target. Using the LISE spectrometer the fragments^{4, 6}He,^{6–9, 11}Li,^{7, 9–12, 14}Be,^{10–15, 17}B^11–19C,^13–19N,^15–21O,^{18– 21}F and^20,21 Ne are analyzed and transported to interact with a 199.4 mg/cm² Cu target surrounded by a 4π-γ counter. The measured total reaction cross-sectionsσ _R are discussed in terms of the reduced strong absorption radiusr ₀ and compared with other experimental results.     

Transfer reaction studies to states in 14N and 14C

States in ¹⁴N and ¹⁴C have been populated by the Li-induced reactions ¹⁰B(⁶Li, d), ¹¹B(⁶Li, t/³He), ¹¹B(⁷Li, α), ¹²C(⁶Li, α), and ¹³C(⁷Li, ⁶He/⁶Li) at E_Li = 32 and 34 MeV. Selective population of states is observed with these reactions. Angular distributions were measured for the ¹¹B(⁶Li t/³He) analog reactions. Experimental criteria are developed to allow the identification of analog states up to 18.40 and 16.45 MeV excitation in ¹⁴N and ¹⁴C, respectively.     

A study of the 14C(6Li, 6He)14N reaction at 93 MeV

The reaction ¹⁴C(⁶Li, ⁶He)¹⁴N was investigated with 93 MeV ⁶Li ions in an angular interval of 7–26°. Angular distributions were analysed for the four most intense groups of ⁶He nuclei, corresponding to transitions to the ground (1₁⁺) and the excited (1₂⁺, 2₁^?, 4₁^?) states of ¹⁴N. In the theoretical analysis a mechanism of the spin-isospin excitation was suggested in the DWBA frame with the finite range of interaction and recoil in the light system (⁶Li⁶He) taken into account. In the calculations both shell-model wave functions and transition densities obtained in the theory of finite Fermi systems (FFS) were used. From the comparison between theory and experiment the Landau-Migdal force constant g′ is estimated in order to obtain some information on the degree of nuclear proximity to the threshold of pion condensation.     

Optical model analysis of the elastic scattering of 45 MeV 3He particles on 1p shell nuclei

Angular distributions of elastically scattered ³He particles from the 1p shell nuclei ⁶Li, ⁷Li, ⁹Be, ¹⁰B, ¹¹B, ¹²C and ¹⁶O were measured by using a 45 MeV ³He beam. The absolute differential cross section data obtained were analysed in terms of the standard optical model. Using the fact that the rms radius of the 1p shell nuclei is nearly constant a simple folding model allows finding an optical potential family whose real potential depth varies linearly with the target mass. The best fits exhibit a normalized volume integral of about 400 MeV · fm³ for the real potential. From the best-fit parameters a mean parameter set is deduced which varies smoothly with the target mass A_T. The average parameter set compares well with the systematics found for heavier nuclei.     

Highly excited 8Be core in the configuration of the 12C and 11B ground states

Angular distributions of the ¹²C(d, ⁶Li)⁸Be reaction at E_lab = 78.0 MeV and the ¹¹B(³He, ⁶Li)⁸Be reaction at E_lab = 71.8 MeV were measured. Transitions leading to ⁸Be in the ground state and the 3.04, 16.63, 16.92, 17.64 and 18.15 MeV excited states were observed. A DWBA analysis was performed regarding the (d, ⁶Li) and (³He, ⁶Li) reactions as direct α particle or triton transfers, respectively.     

Experimental investigation of highly excited states of the 5,6He and 5,6Li nuclei in the (6Li, 7Be) and (6Li, 7Li) one-nucleon pickup reactions

The (⁶Li, ⁷Be) and (⁶Li, ⁷Li) reactions on ⁶Li and ⁷Li nuclei were investigated in the angular interval 0°–20° in the laboratory system at a ⁶Li energy of 93 MeV. In addition to low-lying states of the ^5,6He and ^5,6Li nuclei, broad structures were observed near the t(³He)+d and t(³He)+t thresholds at the excitation energies of 16.75 (3/2⁺) and ～20 MeV (for ⁵He), 16.66 (3/2⁺) and ～20 MeV (⁵Li), 14.0 and 25 MeV (⁶He), and ～20 MeV (⁶Li). The angular distributions measured in the ⁷Li(⁶Li, ⁷Be)⁶He reaction for transitions to the ground state (0⁺) and excited states at E _x=1.8 MeV (2⁺) and 14.0 MeV of the ⁶He nucleus were analyzed by the finite-range distorted-wave method assuming the 1p-and 1s-proton pickup mechanism. The (⁶Li, ⁷Be) and (⁶Li, ⁷Li) reactions were shown to proceed predominantly through the one-step pickup mechanism, and the broad structures observed at high excitation energies are considered as quasimolecular states of the t(³He)+d and t(³He)+t types.     

Scattering of radioactive nuclei 6He and 3H by protons: Effects of neutron skin and halo in 6He, 8He,and 11Li

In an experimental study of ⁶He+p and ³H+p collisions at ∼70 A MeV, the elastic scattering angular distributions were measured and the known excited state ⁶He_1.8¹ was observed. Comparative analysis of existing experimental data on proton elastic scattering by ⁴He, ⁶He, ⁶Li, ⁸He, ⁹Li, and ¹¹Li was performed. Effects of valence neutrons were investigated using the eikonal approach. A difference between ¹¹Li and ^6,8He was found.     

Core-breakup reactions of the halo nuclei 11Be and 11Li: momentum distributions and shadow effects

The halo nuclei ¹¹Be and ¹¹Li have been studied in core-breakup reactions where the halo neutrons are expected to be released without a major distortion due to the reaction. The widths of the halo-neutron momentum distributions have been extracted in coincidence with He fragments, Γ = 32 ± 4 MeV/c, and Li fragments, Γ = 42 ± 4 MeV/c for ¹¹Be and with He fragments, Γ = 42 ± 6 MeV/c for ¹¹Li. The ¹¹Be breakup gives a very low neutron multiplicity of 0.38±0.09 which is a manifestation of the shadowing of the neutron in the core-breakup reaction. This value can be understood from a simple theoretical calculation, which also accounts for the observed transverse momentum widths at small angles.     

Effect of the Structure of Light Loosely Bound Nuclei on the Mechanisms of Nuclear Reactions

The results of experiments devoted to studying fusion and transfer reactions in beams of loosely bound (³He) and cluster (⁶Li, ⁷Li) nuclei, as well as nuclei that have a halo structure (⁶He and ⁸He), with nuclei of light and heavy elements are generalized. Special features in the behavior of cross sections for the formation of evaporation residues and transfer-reaction products at energies near the barrier are revealed. The behavior of cross sections for nucleon- and cluster-transfer reactions leads to different populations of single-particle and collective states in target-like nuclei. The effect of various channels of nuclear reactions involving light nuclei on the population of the ^195mHg and ^197mHg(13/2⁺), ^198mTl and ^196mTl(7⁺), and ^196mAu and ^198mAu(12⁻) pairs of isomeric states is considered. The values of the isomeric ratios (σ_m/σ_g) for reaction products originating from fusion reactions followed by particle evaporation and from nucleon-and cluster-transfer reactions are explained.

     

Clustering aspects of light exotic nuclei

The discovery of light nuclei with neutron halos has opened new perspectives for nuclear structure and a possibility to study genuine few-body aspects of matter. A number of borromean systems where the system is bound but where no binary subsystems are bound, are realized by nature in the context of nuclei,¹¹Li being the nucleus which has had most recent attention. Although a large number of calculations have addressed the detailed structure of the¹¹Li neutron halo, no single model has yet explained all the data presently available. This is in part due to uncertainties in then+⁹Li interaction. For⁶He, also a borromean system, where then+core interaction is known, the best three-body and reaction models succeed in reproducing the data. In the¹¹Li case, a major uncertainty concerns the effect of possible 1s intruder states.     

On the nuclear interaction potential in the reactions with heavy ions

The interaction potential of heavy ions⁴He,⁶Li,¹²C and¹⁶O is constructed in the folding model. The density distribution of nuclear matter for these nuclei is calculated in the framework of the hyperspherical function method. For the calculation of the folding potentials we have employed the Skyrme nucleon-nucleon forces. The influence of several effects on the results of calculations is studied: the role of the three-body forces of the nucleon-nucleon interaction, dependence of the folding potential on the mass numbers of the colliding nuclei and the possibility of observing the monopole resonance in the ion inelastic scattering. Using our folding potential as a real part of the optical potential we have calculated the differential cross section of elastic scattering of⁶Li from¹²C at laboratory energy of lithium ionsT _L =90.0 MeV. Reasonable agreement with experiment is obtained.     

Nuclear reactions of C on a liquid hydrogen target measured with the superconducting TOF spectrometer

Reaction cross sections with various kinds of breakup channels for neutron-rich carbon isotopes ^18-20C and for ⁹Be impinging on a liquid hydrogen target were investigated at 40 MeV/nucleon. The nuclides of interest were produced via projectile fragmentation from a 63 MeV/nucleon ⁴⁰Ar beam and were separated in flight at the RIKEN projectile fragment separator (RIPS). The combination of the large-acceptance superconducting TOF spectrometer, TOMBEE (TOF Mass analyzer for exotic BEam Experiment), with a liquid hydrogen target, CRYPTA (CRYogenic ProTon and Alpha target system), enables simultaneous measurements of several reaction channels: the reaction cross sections (σR), individual elemental fragmentation cross sections (σΔZ), charge-changing cross sections (σcc), neutron-removal cross sections (σ−xn), and charge-pickup cross sections (σΔZ+1) for ^19,20C; σΔZ, σ−xn, and σΔZ+1 for ¹⁸C; and σR for ⁹Be. The present σR of ⁹Be on proton, σR=397±23 mb, measured in the inverse kinematics, was consistent with the previous measurements using proton beams at different laboratories. The σR of ¹⁹C and ²⁰C on proton were determined to be σR=754±22 mb and σR=791±34 mb, respectively. Taking into account the beam energy and target dependence of σR, the present σR are found to be considerably enhanced compared with those measured at around 1 GeV/nucleon. The σΔZ+1 appears to increase with the mass number of the projectiles, and it significantly contributes to σR in the present energy range. The finite-range optical-limit and few-body Glauber model analyses were performed for σR to study the nuclear matter density distributions and to derive the relative strength of the s-wave components of the valence neutrons in ¹⁹C and ²⁰C. A neutron halo structure of ¹⁹C is confirmed with an s-wave dominance of the valence neutron when the effect of the charge-pickup reaction is taken into account. The large σ−n of ¹⁹C and σ−2n of ²⁰C also support the decoupled structures of ¹⁸C +n and ¹⁸C+2n, respectively. The σcc of ¹⁹C and ²⁰C agree with each other within their experimental uncertainties, which might indicate a similar proton density distribution in ¹⁹C and ²⁰C. The σΔZ decreases monotonically without the even-odd effect as the number of removed protons increases.     

One-nucleon spectroscopy of light nuclei

The capabilities and limitations of the conventional many-particle shell model and modern potential cluster models are discussed. New revaluated and more accurate calculations of one-nucleon spectroscopic characteristics of the light nuclei of 1p shell are presented. In many-particle shell model for nuclei with A = 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 nucleon partial widths of highly excited states with the isotopic spin T = 3/2 were calculated both for “allowed” and “forbidden” transitions. One-nucleon spectroscopic factors were calculated in threebody multicluster models of ⁶Li{αnp}, ⁸Li{αtn}, and ⁹Be{ααn} nuclei. For isobar-analogue nuclei ⁷Li and ⁷Be, the spectroscopic proton S _p and neutron S _n factors for transitions to the ground and excited states of corresponding residue nuclei of the triplet ⁶Li-⁶He-⁶Be were calculated in the framework of binary potential αtand ατ models. Integral, differential and polarization characteristics of photonuclear processes ⁷Li(γ, n ₀)⁶Li, ⁶He(p, γ_{0 + 1})⁷Li, ⁷Li(γ, p ₀)⁶He, and ⁹Be(γ, p _{0 + 1})⁸Li were calculated in this approach.     

Polarization effects in the quasielastic (p, 2p) reaction with the nuclear S-Shell Protons at 1 GeV

The polarization of the secondary protons in the (p, 2p) reaction with the S-shell protons of nuclei ⁴He, ⁶Li, ¹²C, ²⁸Si, ⁴⁰Ca was measured at 1 GeV unpolarized proton beam. The spin correlation parameters C _ij for the ⁴He and ¹²C targets also were for the first time obtained as well. The polarization measurements were performed by means of a two-arm magnetic spectrometer, each arm of which was equipped with the multiwire-proportional chamber polarimeter. This experiment was aimed to study a modification of the proton-proton scattering matrix in the nuclear medium.     

Reaction cross sections for collisions involving exotic light nuclei within the glauber approach

The reaction cross sections for the interaction of exotic nuclei ⁶He and ¹¹Li with ¹²C nuclei are calculated for energies of about 0.8 GeV per nucleon. The cross sections calculated by the exact Glauber formula are compared with their counterparts found by using the formulas of the optical limit, the rigidtarget approximation, and the few-body approximation. The effect of the structure of the nuclei being considered on the calculated cross sections is examined. The root-mean-square radii of the ⁶He and ¹¹Li nuclei are estimated on the basis of experimental data on the cross sections for the interaction of these exotic nuclei with ¹²C nuclei.